46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



9. That pleuro-pneumonia is, after contagious typhus, the 

 most destructive disease which can attack cattle. 



10. That it may arise spontaneously from the influence of 

 local causes and spread by contagion. 



We have stated that the disease was first noticed in llolland 

 in 1833. It made its appearance there after an inquest by an 

 agricultural committee upon some infected animals from Prussia. 

 Its ravages afterwards were such that the government felt obliged 

 to prohibit the exportation of cattle. Toward the close of 1835, 

 and at the conyncncemcnt of 1836, it reached the southern 

 part of Holland, where it spread rapidly, and in the following 

 year_ carried off seven thousand head of cattle. According to 

 the official reports, Holland lias lost from 1837 to 1839, 28,489 

 animals by pleuro-pneumonia. To-day the fine cattle of this 

 rich kingdom are decimated by this formidable disease. 



It is evident, therefore, that a disease most destructive to 

 cattle has extended from one part of Europe to another. Tiiat 

 the disease is contagious seems also probable, but as this is a 

 most important point, we give the result of Delafond's researches 

 upon it. 



1. The malady, while in a herd of cattle, presents all the 

 general characters of contagious affections. 



2. Fifty-two distinct observations show that 387 healthy 

 animals, exposed in stables to those diseased, contracted pleuro- 

 pneumonia, and that among this number were thirteen animals 

 from districts where the disease did not exist. 



3. Nine observations prove that 54 healthy animals contracted 

 peripneumonia after being introduced into pastures with dis- 

 eased or suspected cattle, and that among these 54 were five 

 brought in a healthy condition from distant places. 



4. Ten observations seem to pro»'e that 64 animals had peri- 

 ])neumonia, after exposure to the emanations from the remains 

 of bodies of dead cattle, and that of this number, two contracted 

 it by the inoculation of morbid materials from the diseased lungs. 



5. The number of well autlienticated examples of contagion 

 amounts to 505. 



6. Two observations render it very probable that animals 

 convalescing from pleuro-pneumonia are still able to transmit 

 the disease. 



